deluca67

There should be a a greater statistical advantage for O'Reilly to make sense on passing on Lucic size, physicality and toughness. O'Reilly's age is a fair point, being only 24 going into next season. He'd need to be cheaper in both assets to acquire and salary in order for it to be a good deal for the Sabres. Lucic is one of a kind, I'd pay to have that one of kind player in the Blue & Gold. To think you can piece together multiple players to give you what Lucic can is the same old Regierian thought process that hurt this franchise for years. Lucic certainly should have gotten more in return when he traded Seguin and Boychuk :doh:

The time line of two years is a reasonable point, the best made against the move so far. Think of this. opening night 2015 the starting lineup for the Buffalo Sabres is Gionta at right wing, Girgenssons at center Milan Lucic at left wing and the two kids on defense. That's an opening night starting lineup that erases the past two seasons.

Not even close. Stewart along with Ennis and even Kane are nowhere near Lucic as an impact player. I know Lucic ran over Miller and the hearts of the fans, to say he would be about the same as Stewart or Ennis is better, come on. Put the hurt feelings aside. First Ennis and now Stewart? If people didn't want to have a serious conversation than just lock the thread, this is going beyond silly. As far as O'Reilly, not many players with any talent wouldn't come in and lead the Sabres. They just lost 120 game sin two years, it shouldn't be hard to lead in any category. If the conversation was just about O'Reilly? Sure I'd say make he deal. Either/Or with Lucic, your talking two players on far different levels with O'Reilly having a lot of catching up to do.

That series is all about Petr Mrazek for me. If Mrazek can solidify his spot as the #1 goalie that could mean Jimmy Howard becomes a viable option for he Sabres.

Why take Lucic when you can get similar production from a smaller. less physical nowhere near as intimidating and less impact-full Ryan O'Reilly at pretty much the same price? :doh: I must be crazy? I would think Lucic would be more popular here in Sabres Nation. Without him there is no tank and no "McEichel" in the Sabres future. He single handedly destroyed Status Quo and sent Sabres on the path to what became the "tank." Every time "McEichel" scores fans should chant "Thank You Milan." ;)

Outplayed? How? I think he was talking about Cody Hodgson.

Seriously? Who do the Sabres have better on the wing right now. No one. Maybe Girgensons in a few years. Ennis is a nice player, nowhere near the impact player Lucic is. Moulson, not even close. Kane? Maybe if he gets his game on track. Other than that, there is a reason the Sabres are coming off the worst stretch in franchise history, any player with the potential to be better than a Lucic has yet to either play for the Sabres or haven;t spent significant time with the Sabres. Jagr? Jagr wasn't a player to play into his 40's when he was 26.

After two seasons and 120 loses I am going to be greedy. Give me the top pick, Lucic, Lundqvist, Kessel and any other start player rumored, or not, to be available. I want to wash the past two seasons away as quickly as possible. I want to talk about players that can move this franchise towards a Stanley Cup. I'm not going to be against any talented player coming to this team until we simply don't have room for them because the Sabres are stacked with talent. Lucic would be the Sabres best left winger until Girgensons passes him, hopefully.

Well said and I get what you are saying. IMO, if the Sabres are mired in the bottom third of the league next season there is going to be a portion of this fan base that are going to be focused on the stud of the 2016 draft class wanting the Sabres to dump veterans and take a run at whomever the 2016 top pick is projected to be. I'm not in favor of this at all, just to be clear. I'm just interested in how the 2015 "tankers" will react to the 2016 "tankers."

Somewhere on TBD a Bills fan said the same exact thing about Rex Ryan. With Pegula's wallet, all things are possible.

Losing Krejci for a third of the season likely cost the Bruins a playoff spot. Brett Connolly getting hurt right off the bat didn't help either. This is an ideal situation for the next GM. You have some assets you can move, goaltending, mid aged players to keep you competitive and some young top level talent like Hamilton and Smith to build from if they choose to go that route. Boston may end up taking a step back like they did in 05-06 and 06-07, I doubt they will be down for very long.

Put Lucic on a line with some top end speed and, IMO, that 20 goals can easily turn to 25-30 goals. Imagine the young centers, Kane, Lucic and throw Lundqvist in net? The Sabres have the money and the Rangers have a quality replacement in Talbot. Impossible? Who thought at the end of last season that Ryan and McCoy would be Bills?

You can add a couple of more players and still not equal what Lucic brings. At still only 26 years old the man is a BEAST. Not wanting Lucic on the Sabres is like not wanting Brock Lesnar as your tag team partner. It's pure insanity. If the Bruins did put him on the market there would be 29 GM's calling the Bruins. Picking up Lucic not only would you be getting a one of kind player, you'd also wouldn't have to play against him and you would have Lucic on your roster to play against the Bruins.

What are you looking for here? Does Kane need to buy dinners and send birthday cards to his teammates kids or does he just need to show up to the rink every night ready to play?

You'll likely have to replace Grigorenko, Foligno and Fasching with Reinhart, Pysyk and another highly rated prospect just to get Phoenix to even consider moving the pick.. If another team lands the 1st pick and Arizona drops to the 3rd pick? I can see Arizona willing to flip that pick for a package of assets.

In a strange way when I'm excited about the local sports teams I find myself paying more attention to other sports like baseball. I'll even watch some NBA playoffs. Having the local teams on the rise invigorates the sports fan in me.

Nolan was brought in more as a good will gesture to the fans than anything hockey related. Since about 10:30 Friday April 10th the focus turned back to hockey. Nolan is the past and should remain there. It doesn't matter to me if fans hate this firing or love it. This franchise is on a course towards the ultimate goal, that's all I care about, staying the course and enjoying the ride.

Ironically, this is the only "stupid" post in the thread. The rest is just a reasonable discussion on a Sunday afternoon.

I would have reservations about Jack Eichel if he were the type of person to base his life choices on what Connor McDavid is doing?

If his priority if to finish college than good for him. It wouldn't deter me from drafting him.

Hopefully it's not all about the money for the kid. I would have a great deal of respect for the kid if he decided he had unfinished business and returned to BU for another year. If would be great to see some character come along with all that talent.

For the last few years it has been consistent. It's not a guarantee, as a measure of what is needed to make the playoffs I find it better than trying to guess the total points needed. For example, of the 16 playoff teams this season Calgary has the lowest point total, 97. Last season Detroit made the playoffs as the final wildcard seed under .500 and a negative goal differential in the East and Dallas was sub .500 (91 points) as the 8th seed in the West. No team over ,500 or better or with a positive goal differential missed the playoffs.

There will be a portion of the "fan base" that will feel the same way as this year's "tankers." Would those fans be any more/less right or wrong?

Once again the "actual .500" is an accurate measuring stick for playoff teams. All 16 playoff teams will have at least 42 victories while only two teams, Boston and Dallas can possibly end the season with 41 wins and not make the playoffs. The same with goal differential, all teams .500 and above have a positive goal differential while the remaining teams are all negative in goal differential.

It may be a radical thought, IMO, it's time for a free college education to become a Constitutional right and education funding should be protected by the Constitution as well. Education should be right up there with Free Speech as our country's most valuable asset and in the best interest of our national security and it should be treated as such.